Dr. A. Syngalowski, chairman of the executive of the World ORT Union, arrived here today from Geneva to negotiate the renewal of the agreement between his organization and the Joint Distribution Committee for 1956. Last year the ORT received from the JDC $1,390,000 towards its budget. It spent more than $3,700,000 in 1955, Dr. Syngalowski stated.
“For the material assistance, as well as for the excellent friendly cooperation of its direction, the JDC deserves our deep appreciation and the sincere gratitude of the tens of thousands who have received through ORT the most important means for their economic self-defense,” Dr. Syngalowski declared. “It is a good omen for the ORT Union that with the growth of its work, ORT’s income from local sources grows each year in the countries where it maintains its vocational training schools.”
The ORT leader reported that approximately 20,000 students attended ORT schools during 1955, ten percent more than in the previous year. A total of 4,275 students graduated as qualified craftsmen, 1,036 of them in Israel. Seven of the 38 ORT trade schools in Israel converted their curriculum into a four-year program with more advanced technical and scientific content, in keeping with the requirements of a modernized industry. On the other hand new elementary trade schools with a two-year program were opened for young immigrants from backward countries.
“In North Africa,” Dr. Syngalowski said, “the enrolment, despite the prevailing unrest, increased by 584 students, due to the fact that for immigration to Israel only those families are accepted which have at least one member with a productive trade and because of the stronger tendency toward industrialization in Tunisia and Morocco. Not only among the youth, but also among the adults, the desire to learn a trade has become much stronger. Recently an agreement was concluded between the Aliyah Department in Jerusalem and ORT for short-term courses for adult Moroccan Jews between the ages of 18 and 40.
“In addition to the training provided in trade schools, ORT has placed 3,500 apprentices in industry and small workshops. For that purpose, during the past two years, two new apprenticeship centres were opened in Casablanca and Tunis. The income of these young apprentices, which is a handsome contribution to the budget of their families, amounts to over $50,000 a month. The Moroccan Government has increased its subsidy to ORT’s local program from $34,000 to $42,000 for 1956. It is interesting that the government in Algeria at the end of last December allocated a subvention to the ORT schools there amounting to $40,000–$3,000 more than the year before. The annual total of government subventions to ORT schools in six countries amounts to $665,000.
“The Central ORT Institute in Geneva by the end of 1955 had trained 103 instructors for schools in various countries. In addition 14 ORT specialists from Israel, Morocco, Italy and France attended a perfectioning course in Swiss factories and in the Institute last summer. From the special, ORT school in Paris, which trains instructresses for girls’ schools, the first 14 instructresses were graduated and are at work in ORT schools in Israel, Morocco, “Tunis and Iran,” Dr. Syngalowski emphasized.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
